ON THE SACRED DISEASE.txt

                                     400 BC

                             ON THE SACRED DISEASE

                                 by Hippocrates

                          translated by Francis Adams









                        ON THE SACRED DISEASE



  It is thus with regard to the disease called Sacred: it appears to

me to be nowise more divine nor more sacred than other diseases, but

has a natural cause from the originates like other affections. Men

regard its nature and cause as divine from ignorance and wonder,

because it is not at all like to other diseases. And this notion of

its divinity is kept up by their inability to comprehend it, and the

simplicity of the mode by which it is cured, for men are freed from it

by purifications and incantations. But if it is reckoned divine

because it is wonderful, instead of one there are many diseases

which would be sacred; for, as I will show, there are others no less

wonderful and prodigious, which nobody imagines to be sacred. The

quotidian, tertian, and quartan fevers, seem to me no less sacred

and divine in their origin than this disease, although they are not

reckoned so wonderful. And I see men become mad and demented from no

manifest cause, and at the same time doing many things out of place;

and I have known many persons in sleep groaning and crying out, some

in a state of suffocation, some jumping up and fleeing out of doors,

and deprived of their reason until they awaken, and afterward becoming

well and rational as before, although they be pale and weak; and

this will happen not once but frequently. And there are many and

various things of the like kind, which it would be tedious to state

particularly.



  They who first referred this malady to the gods appear to me to have

been just such persons as the conjurors, purificators, mountebanks,

and charlatans now are, who give themselves out for being

excessively religious, and as knowing more than other people. Such

persons, then, using the divinity as a pretext and screen of their own

inability to of their own inability to afford any assistance, have

given out that the disease is sacred, adding suitable reasons for this

opinion, they have instituted a mode of treatment which is safe for

themselves, namely, by applying purifications and incantations, and

enforcing abstinence from baths and many articles of food which are

unwholesome to men in diseases. Of sea substances, the surmullet,

the blacktail, the mullet, and the eel; for these are the fishes

most to be guarded against. And of fleshes, those of the goat, the

stag, the sow, and the dog: for these are the kinds of flesh which are

aptest to disorder the bowels. Of fowls, the cock, the turtle, and the

bustard, and such others as are reckoned to be particularly strong.

And of potherbs, mint, garlic, and onions; for what is acrid does

not agree with a weak person. And they forbid to have a black robe,

because black is expressive of death; and to sleep on a goat's skin,

or to wear it, and to put one foot upon another, or one hand upon

another; for all these things are held to be hindrances to the cure.

All these they enjoin with reference to its divinity, as if

possessed of more knowledge, and announcing beforehand other causes so

that if the person should recover, theirs would be the honor and

credit; and if he should die, they would have a certain defense, as if

the gods, and not they, were to blame, seeing they had administered

nothing either to eat or drink as medicines, nor had overheated him

with baths, so as to prove the cause of what had happened. But I am of

opinion that (if this were true) none of the Libyans, who live in

the interior, would be free from this disease, since they all sleep on

goats' skins, and live upon goats' flesh; neither have they couch,

robe, nor shoe that is not made of goat's skin, for they have no other

herds but goats and oxen. But if these things, when administered in

food, aggravate the disease, and if it be cured by abstinence from

them, godhead is not the cause at all; nor will purifications be of

any avail, but it is the food which is beneficial and prejudicial, and

the influence of the divinity vanishes.



  Thus, they who try to cure these maladies in this way, appear to

me neither to reckon them sacred nor divine. For when they are removed

by such purifications, and this method of cure, what is to prevent

them from being brought upon men and induced by other devices

similar to these? So that the cause is no longer divine, but human.

For whoever is able, by purifications conjurations, to drive away such

an affection, will be able, by other practices, to excite it; and,

according to this view, its divine nature is entirely done away

with. By such sayings and doings, they profess to be possessed of

superior knowledge, and deceive mankind by enjoining lustrations and

purifications upon them, while their discourse turns upon the divinity

and the godhead. And yet it would appear to me that their discourse

savors not of piety, as they suppose, but rather of impiety, and as if

there were no gods, and that what they hold to be holy and divine,

were impious and unholy. This I will now explain.



  For, if they profess to know how to bring down the moon, darken

the sun, induce storms and fine weather, and rains and droughts, and

make the sea and land unproductive, and so forth, whether they

arrogate this power as being derived from mysteries or any other

knowledge or consideration, they appear to me to practice impiety, and

either to fancy that there are no gods, or, if there are, that they

have no ability to ward off any of the greatest evils. How, then,

are they not enemies to the gods? For if a man by magical arts and

sacrifices will bring down the moon, and darken the sun, and induce

storms, or fine weather, I should not believe that there was

anything divine, but human, in these things, provided the power of the

divine were overpowered by human knowledge and subjected to it. But

perhaps it will be said, these things are not so, but, not

withstanding, men being in want of the means of life, invent many

and various things, and devise many contrivances for all other things,

and for this disease, in every phase of the disease, assigning the

cause to a god. Nor do they remember the same things once, but

frequently. For, if they imitate a goat, or grind their teeth, or if

their right side be convulsed, they say that the mother of the gods is

the cause. But if they speak in a sharper and more intense tone,

they resemble this state to a horse, and say that Poseidon is the

cause. Or if any excrement be passed, which is often the case, owing

to the violence of the disease, the appellation of Enodia is

adhibited; or, if it be passed in smaller and denser masses, like

bird's, it is said to be from Apollo Nomius. But if foam be emitted by

the mouth, and the patient kick with his feet, Ares then gets the

blame. But terrors which happen during the night, and fevers, and

delirium, and jumpings out of bed, and frightful apparitions, and

fleeing away,-all these they hold to be the plots of Hecate, and the

invasions the and use purifications and incantations, and, as

appears to me, make the divinity to be most wicked and most impious.

For they purify those laboring under this disease, with the same sorts

of blood and the other means that are used in the case of those who

are stained with crimes, and of malefactors, or who have been

enchanted by men, or who have done any wicked act; who ought to do the

very reverse, namely, sacrifice and pray, and, bringing gifts to the

temples, supplicate the gods. But now they do none of these things,

but purify; and some of the purifications they conceal in the earth,

and some they throw into the sea, and some they carry to the mountains

where no one can touch or tread upon them. But these they ought to

take to the temples and present to the god, if a god be the cause of

the disease. Neither truly do I count it a worthy opinion to hold that

the body of man is polluted by god, the most impure by the most

holy; for were it defiled, or did it suffer from any other thing, it

would be like to be purified and sanctified rather than polluted by

god. For it is the divinity which purifies and sanctifies the greatest

of offenses and the most wicked, and which proves our protection

from them. And we mark out the boundaries of the temples and the

groves of the gods, so that no one may pass them unless he be pure,

and when we enter them we are sprinkled with holy water, not as

being polluted, but as laying aside any other pollution which we

formerly had. And thus it appears to me to hold, with regard to

purifications.



  But this disease seems to me to be no more divine than others; but

it has its nature such as other diseases have, and a cause whence it

originates, and its nature and cause are divine only just as much as

all others are, and it is curable no less than the others, unless

when, the from of time, it is confirmed, and has became stronger

than the remedies applied. Its origin is hereditary, like that of

other diseases. For if a phlegmatic person be born of a phlegmatic,

and a bilious of a bilious, and a phthisical of a phthisical, and

one having spleen disease, of another having disease of the spleen,

what is to hinder it from happening that where the father and mother

were subject to this disease, certain of their offspring should be

so affected also? As the semen comes from all parts of the body,

healthy particles will come from healthy parts, and unhealthy from

unhealthy parts. And another great proof that it is in nothing more

divine than other diseases is, that it occurs in th...